It is bounded by unusual Tudor Gothic Revival terraced houses, with picturesque gables and Elizabethan-style windows, and is probably unique among squares.

[2] The land on which the square was built was named Gosseyfield or the Gossey Field, and had been left to the Worshipful Company of Drapers in 1690 by the daughter of John Walter, one of its former Clerks, for the support of almshouses in Southwark and Newington.

[4]: 118  Carpenter's father, also named Richard, had been the first Surveyor for the Drapers' Company Estate and had drawn up plans for pairs of classical houses on the site.

[6] Carpenter was a friend of Augustus Pugin, and built Gothic Revival churches and almshouses elsewhere, and De Beauvoir Square in Hackney, before his early death at the age of 42.

The houses are of Gothic Revival dimensions, ornamentation, interiors and colouring by Carpenter, with wholly below-street level basements and slight projections to the main bays which are of aged yellow (yellow-grey-brown) brick with stone dressings.

The public house at the end of the northern approach road has been named The Drapers Arms [sic] since at least 1851,[15] and is in a Classical style, with long arched windows set between pilasters.

[16] The garden contains mature London plane and beech trees, conifers, bushes and flower beds, and occupies 0.19 hectares (0.47 acres).